Hold on to your hats. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections in the state, is now saying that it could seek still more time to review the million signatures that Democrats turned in to recall Gov. Scott Walker — plus almost another million against other Republican officeholders — a move that could open up another round of litigation in this saga.
In a letter to state legislators, GAB Director Kevin Kennedy asks for more funding for the agency, to deal with the overwhelming strain that the process has placed on them. And he also indicates that they could ask for more time.
Key quote from the letter:
On January 25, 2012, a Dane County Circuit Court granted an extension of 30 days for the G.A.B. to complete its careful examination of the petitions to determine its sufficiency. Additional time was also given to the officeholders to file challenges. The G.A.B. is currently required to complete its examination and determination of the sufficiency of the petitions no later than March 19, 2012. The agency anticipates requesting additional time in order to complete the duplicate signature analysis and to ensure if recall elections are ordered, the recall election events are consolidated and do not conflict with existing election events or holidays.
GAB spokesman Reid Magney told the Wisconsin State Journal that the board will formally discuss the matter at its March 12 meeting.
The question then, is whether the GAB could successfully get a judge to grant an extension — that is, by reporting on their progress so far, and showing due cause to raise doubt about whether to trigger the elections — or whether a judge would rule against further extensions and in favor of just getting on with the main business of the recalls.
In response, the Wisconsin Democrats released a statement from party chairman Mike Tate, excoriating the idea of an additional extension, and declaring that they will oppose any such request:
“Any delay of the election — that even Scott Walker himself has said was inevitable — is a disservice to the people of Wisconsin who called for it. The Government Accountability Board has given every accommodation to the Tea Party/Scott Walker camp — if they delay the election any further, they are giving them a clear advantage.
Other than the bizarre Tea Party challenges that have no merit, Scott Walker was not able to challenge a single signature submitted. This should allow the GAB to complete its duties in the generous time allowed. We oppose any move to delay the election and thereby give Scott Walker more time to raise unlimited, unregulated corporate cash from New York hedge fund managers and Texas oil billionaires.”
However, such an extension would be just fine with the Walker campaign.
When asked for comment, Walker campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews told TPM: “The GAB should take as much time as they believe to be necessary to complete a full review of all signature and to follow the ruling by Judge Davis. Upholding the integrity and fairness of the process is priority number one, and we are glad the GAB is committed to doing so.”
It should be noted that the legal ruling referenced here, from Waukesha County Judge Mac Davis, is currently in legal limbo, though the GAB has said it will honor the spirit of the ruling and apply diligence to suspicious signatures.
Under state law, the GAB originally had 31 days to review the petitions, and a recall target (Walker) has 10 days to review signatures, starting from when petitions are filed, and then register their challenges with the GAB. In late January, Dane County Judge Richard Niess granted the GAB a further 30 days, for 61 days total through March 19, a move that was widely expected going into the recall.
Niess also restarted the clock for Walker, due to the GAB’s initial inability to deliver copies of the sheer number of petitions, to begin once the copies were fully supplied. And on top of that, Niess granted Walker an extra 20 days, for 30 days total, which ultimately worked out to a deadline of February 27.
In mid-February, however, Walker’s legal team asked for a further extension of two weeks, up through March 12 — getting close to the GAB’s own deadline of March 19, which is itself a 30-day extension beyond the statute — in order to accommodate their requirements for data analysis by their contracted third-party vendor. The same judge, however, rejected the request — after which the Walker campaign announced that they would not turn in any challenges, saying they did not have enough time, but have instead urged the GAB to take into account a Tea Party group’s attempt to challenge the petitions.
This result may have come about due to an admission that Walker’s legal team made in their filing: Of the amount of processing that they had completed, they claimed a discovered error rate of only between 10 and 20 percent, consistent with the 15% figure in a random sampling by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to find signatures that needed further scrutiny. Such a potential rejection rate is about what is to be expected when an opposing campaign actively looks for alleged deficiencies and challenges against signatures.
However, the Democrats’ submission of over a million signatures was nearly twice the required threshold of just over 540,000, or 25 percent of the total number of voters in the 2010 gubernatorial election. As a result, the Walker campaign would need to disqualify nearly half of the signatures in play here — a rate that is very far above their current tally, and never seemed very likely.
